Decorah community responds to anti-LGBTQ vandalism

On the morning of Sunday, Sept. 17, churchgoers at Decorah Congregational United Church of Christ and Decorah Lutheran Church discovered their church buildings and signage defaced by graffiti with anti-LGBTQIA+ messaging. By the early afternoon, approximately 60 people had gathered to bear witness to what had happened and to counteract it with a message of love, inclusion, and hard work to restore the damages. A display of rainbow-colored doors with the message "God's doors are open to all," which has stood in front of Decorah UCC every year since 2016 for Decorah Pride celebrations, was vandalized on the front and back. "God hates gays" were among the messages scrawled in spray paint. On Saturday, Sept. 16, Decorah UCC was among the coalition of local churches that had held a prayer meeting and marched in the Decorah Pride parade to celebrate under the banner, "Decorah Christians United in Celebrating Pride." Decorah Police and the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office responded to the incident. Nearby infrastructure on West Broadway, from Court Street to Winnebago Street, such as stop signs and the corner of the courthouse retaining wall, were sprayed with graffiti as well. Decorah UCC was the hardest hit by the vandalism. According to Decorah UCC office administrator and digital communications manager Kristin Propson, the Decorah UCC parishioners realized the extent of the vandalism at around 11:15 a.m. Sunday morning, just as their Sunday service was finishing. Propson became the point person for the clean-up as she manages many of the day-to-day tasks at the church since the Decorah UCC is currently without a pastor. "Today, this was the task at hand," Propson said. "Working together with the lay leaders, I organized what we thought was going to be a handful of people for a few hours in the afternoon to scrub the worst of it off. The word got out around town, among the local churches and community leaders, and by 1:30 p.m. we had more than 40 people gathered outside Decorah UCC to clean and bear witness." Approximately 60 people showed up to witness what had happened, pray for healing, and to help with the hours of repainting and scrubbing that were required on the Decorah UCC property. The volunteers cleaned the courthouse property as well. "I organized cleaning the Courthouse wall," Propson said. "We had so many volunteers at one point (around 2 p.m.), and only so many that could work on the church rainbow door display, stone, and roof, that we had extra hands. The volunteers were eager to help, so it made sense to clean up the courthouse wall too. Pastor Peter Kowitz of Decorah Lutheran was working alongside us and was instrumental in organizing the scrubbing and power washing of the courthouse wall, too." Pastor Amy Larson of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and Pastor Melissa Bills of Luther College Ministries led a short service of prayer and lament. Introducing the service, Pastor Mike Wilker of First Lutheran said, "We're going to both grieve what happened, but we're also going to celebrate the life that we do share together, and the pride that we have, especially our LGBTQIA family members and friends." "We gather as a public witness, to say no to hatred and yes to your justice, to your celebration of all people, to your love for this whole community and especially for our LGBTQIA siblings here in Decorah," said Pastor Larson in her prayer. Pastor Bills read from the book of First John, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God." Volunteers included members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Decorah Lutheran Church, First Lutheran Church, Decorah Unitarian Universalists, the Decorah Pride organization, and Luther College students and staff. They scrubbed extensive areas on the roof, back, sides, and chimney of the Decorah UCC building. They also repainted the rainbow doors to restore the original message, "God's doors are open to all." Alongside the volunteers, children, high school students and college students chalked the sidewalk with messages of love and images of rainbows. Matt and Steph Hughes even used their climbing gear to work safely on the steep roofline while scrubbing a large amount of graffiti. "We just support Decorah Pride, and it's so sad that this happened the day after a joyful parade," said Steph. "This was fun, even though the occasion was not good," said Maya Warren, a Luther student. "We heard about it and were glad to help." Propson said the people of the Decorah UCC are deeply grateful and impressed with the community's response to this incident. "It wasn't just supportive and generous - it was notably thoughtful and compassionate. Instead of anger and blame, we noticed an outpouring of concern and authentic empathy. The community's response exemplified pride by affirming the dignity of all people and the need to defend against hate." Propson explained that, while volunteers were able to fully restore the doors and remove most of the graffiti from the back wall of the church, the stone retaining wall and the chimney, more work will need to be done to remove the graffiti from the brick higher up on the church. "We plan to fully remove all of the graffiti," she said. "It is probably going to take a lot more elbow grease and maybe some professional help to restore the historic brick and part of the roof that was damaged." "I'd like to mention that the Decorah Police response was appreciated," Propson continued. "The officers really seemed to take the vandalism and hate crime seriously and we were informed that an investigation was underway. We are grateful for their diligent, attentive and professional response." The Decorah Police Department and the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office are working together to investigate the vandalism. The DPD and Sheriff's Office are asking for assistance from anyone who has information or video camera footage from the Winnebago/Water Street to the Decorah Middle School area. Anyone with information, video camera footage, or further damage please contact the Decorah Police Department at 563-382-3667 or the Winneshiek County Sheriff's Office at 563-382-4268.